Knowledge Solutions
December 2011 | 110
Learning in Conferences By Olivier Serrat
No Loose Change
The true value of a conference lies in its effects on participants. Conferences are to generate and share knowledge that impacts behavior and links to results: this will not happen if the state-of-the-art of conference evaluation remains immature and event planners do not shine a light on the conditions for learning outcomes.
Lest we forget, a conference is a purposeful gathering of people aiming to pool ideas on at least one topic of joint interest or needing to achieve a common goal through interaction (and, naturally, relation). They are face-to-face, sometimes virtual,1 venues for situated learning dedicated to the generation and sharing of knowledge, usually to reach agreement, in formal or informal (yet planned) settings. Conferencing, then, is an age-old technique for reasoning and problem solving, aka sense making, the process by which people give meaning to experience through spoken and written narratives. Certainly, the Socratic Method—a debate between individuals with opposing views that used effective questions to stimulate critical thinking—was a form of it (and the oldest known way of teaching). Nowadays, new modes of transport and communication mean that conferences can take many forms including (i) conventions—large meetings of delegates, industries, members, professions, representatives, or societies seeking concurrence on certain attitudes or routines, such as processes, procedures, and practices; (ii) forums—broad occasions for open discussion, as a rule among experts but now and then involving audiences; (iii) seminars—prolonged and sometimes repeated meets for exchange of results and interaction among a limited number of professionals or advanced students engaged in intensive study or original research; (iv) workshops—brief educational programs for small groups of peers focusing on techniques and skills in a particular field; (v) retreats—periods of group withdrawal from regular activities for development of closer relationships, instruction, or self-reflection; and (vi) meetings2—sundry instances of coming together for business, civic, courtship, educational, government, health and wellness, leisure, religious, social, sports, and other functions. Minds that have nothing to confer find little to Conventions, forums, seminars, perceive. workshops, retreats, and meetings— —William Wordsworth to which the emerging practice of
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Conferences ordinarily occur face-to-face but information and communication technology now also enables virtual mediation—through telephone and, increasingly, video—between people who are geographically separated. In the workplace, one-time, recurring, or series of meetings that regularly draw on the services of a chairperson include briefings, advisory meetings, committee meetings, council meetings, and negotiations. The Knowledge Solutions on conducting effective meetings describe the nature and challenges of each. See ADB. 2009. Conducting Effective Meetings. Manila. Available: www.adb.org/documents/information/knowledge-solutions/ conducting-effective-meetings.pdf. Other types are ad hoc, investigative, one-on-one, team, and work meetings.